Frozen plants, including Chimonanthus praecox

Buddleja frozen solid

We had our first snow of the year today, but the temperatures warmed up quite a bit over the day resulting in freezing rain, and thus a thin layer of snow covered by a thicker layer of ice.
I always worry about this kind of weather as I've found the warm winter followed by wet snow is probably the most damaging to trees. They're already thawed out for the most part, and just can't take the load of that heavy wet snow sticking to their branches, especially when in turns cold enough to freeze there.
Luckily, here in Delaware, the accumulation was fairly light, and though there was a bit of ice on  plants, it wasn't enough to do any real damage. On the way into work, I walked past some of the other plants I've already covered so you can see how they took to the ice.

Plum flowers (Prunus mume) looking a bit less brave

Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red'

and 'Winter Gold'

And on to something new...

Chimonanthus praecox (Fragrant Wintersweet)

The Fragrant Wintersweet is a shrub native to China reaching about 10-12' in height.

I hadn't really paid much attention to this plant, only becoming aware of it in the last couple of weeks after coming across one at Chanticleer. Though it is nice to have flowers in the winter, I can't get quite as excited about this one as I do the Prunus mume. The flowering is by no means prolific, and the overall shape or color of the flower is fairly forgettable as well

Not the showiest shrub but flowers are a bit of a rarity this time of year

It's possible I just caught the plant on a bad day though. I've only seen two of these so I'm not sure if either was necessarily the greatest specimen, and apparently the fragrance of the flowers is a big reason behind their cultivation. I didn't notice anything distinct, but that might be due to the flowers all being encased in a thin sheet of ice.

I'll keep an eye on this plant but overall I think I'd rather just wait another week or two for the Witch-hazels to start flowering. Their petal shape, as well as the variety in color across a numerous cultivars, make it seem like a superior choice for a late-winter shrub.

Going to switch gears over the next few entries and walk through the different fruit types. Next up will be a summary of the wet fruits, adding the Pome to the two we already know.

Added my flickr photostream to the sidebar... I'm still not sure if I want to go with that or Picasa (which seems like it would be easier for integration with this blog) but for the time being take a look at some of my older photos if you're interested.